


Ashes to Ashes

by Geishaaa



Category: Bleach
Genre: Bankai, Battle, Gen, Major Character Injury, Rangiku's bankai reveal, Sad, Sobbing, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:54:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26212234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geishaaa/pseuds/Geishaaa
Summary: Across the battlefield, all too still bodies littered the ground.Black lumps in the dirt, their skin covered with blood, their swords dropped or broken by their feet.Rangiku held Haineko in trembling hands, her eyes stinging with tears.This was the end.
Relationships: Hitsugaya Toushirou & Matsumoto Rangiku
Comments: 15
Kudos: 16
Collections: The Seireitei Server August Writing Challenge 2020





	Ashes to Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Seireitei Discord Server’s August Writing Challenge 2020. The prompt selected was ‘Girl On Fire’ by Alicia Keys ft. Nicki Minaj which I um, interpreted somewhat literally…
> 
> WARNINGS: Violence (above canon level), Major Character Deaths (multiple O.o) and spoilers for the last manga arc (this is set post-canon).
> 
> Tissues out, Reader.

Across the battlefield, all too still bodies littered the ground.

Black lumps in the dirt, their skin covered with blood, their swords dropped or broken by their feet.

Rangiku held Haineko in trembling hands, her eyes stinging with tears.

This was the end.

Twelve years of peace had passed but it had crumbled away to a new enemy, and now it was finally the end for the Gotei Thirteen.

Their enemy was ruthless – relentless even now, despite their strong lead.

The Seireitei had fallen, but still whoever still stood, still fought. Their spirit was commendable, though futile.

This was the end.

Her captain – her best friend, her only family – stood, for once, taller than her. His matured Bankai form his last resort at fighting off the evil that was enveloping them. Around them, ice flew out in all directions like spears, the ground entirely iced over and a number of their enemies frozen solid as rough statues, while others were merely shattered ice cubes beneath their feet. Above them, the sky was blackened by snow clouds, as lightning flickered and thunder rumbled ominously. Toshiro had fought so valiantly, dedicated to the cause – dedicated to _her_ – but it wasn’t enough.

Toshiro’s ice armour had broken away, his white haori now stained and drenched in his blood. His eyes, once the most breathtaking shade of teal and innocence, were now glowing in ice and fury, murderous rage exuding from that bone chilling and suffocating Spiritual Pressure. He too was growing weak though, and he too was going to meet his end.

Rangiku turned sharply feeling a movement behind her, and drew up her sword, blocking the next attack in a second’s time. She pushed back on her attacker and twisted her sword quickly, driving it through the flesh of the creature and back out as it screamed and fell to the icy ground. Instantly, another was behind her and she spun back around, jumping out of its’ way, though its’ claws caught her leg. The lieutenant screamed as those claws raked down her leg, taking her skin, blood and part of her uniform with it.

Swinging her sword again, she took off the beast’s head and panted as it died like its’ brother from a second ago.

They were only minions, mere pawns, but their numbers were endless and came in crushing waves, drowning the Soul Reaper armies.

Rangiku was overwhelmed, they all were. They were losing this battle – they were losing this war.

Rangiku knew that this was her end too.

She wasn’t strong enough, she wasn’t even brave enough.

Around her, her squad, her friends, her captain were dying. They were never going to make it home.

This was the end.

Chilling wind blew her knotting hair across her face, and her torn and dirty uniform flapped around her as she shivered violently.

She turned sharply towards the direction of the wind, ready to fight because she knew it wasn’t her captain’s icy wind this time. She was prepared to face an enemy, but what she faced was worse.

There laid Renji – still, pale, eyes open but dull and lifeless, unseeing. _Dead._

Their laid Rukia – shaking with her final breath, her violet eyes filled with tears as she pulled herself weakly across her husband, her haori no longer white. _Dying._

The cold wind was hers and it was filled with fear. Rangiku stared down at the snow princess, her white bankai form fading away. Rukia looked scared – scared for her death, scared for the daughter she was leaving behind, scared for not knowing where her brother was (if he was still alive).

Healers surrounded the couple but it was too late. Rangiku had silent tears as she watched Rukia’s chest become as still as her husband, her hair as black as the day of her wedding.

They were Rangiku’s friends, and now they were gone. This was the end.

There was a shift in the air behind her but it was too late. The lieutenant had been distracted, watching her friends die. Rangiku gasped, her eyes clenching shut as she waited for the inevitable blow.

She heard it, but she didn’t feel it.

She heard the sound of blade piercing flesh and a pained grunt that was not her own.

Whipping around, the lieutenant felt the gasp get stuck her throat with the lump that was already there.

Her captain, on his knees, sword pierced through his side while he blocked the one coming for his front. He had saved her, but not himself. Always her protector.

The lieutenant tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Toshiro grunted again as the blade was pulled from his side and he used the opportunity to push away the other blade. With a roar, he swung Hyorinmaru across both enemies and they shattered like glass.

Rangiku snapped from her own frozen state and tucked her arms underneath her captain’s armpits, lifting him back up to his feet. It was a millisecond later that he turned and swung her around behind him, just in time to block another blade from hitting her. Again, a blade impaled him deeply as the captain took the hit right through his sternum.

That time Rangiku really did scream.

The enemy was cut down quickly with a razor sharp whip of ash.

Toshiro fell back to his knees and doubled over. He caught himself with his hand while the other clutched his heavily bleeding wounds. He gasped and swallowed oxygen desperately, and spat blood onto the ice below him as Rangiku dipped down to help him.

“Captain!” she tried to scream but it came out a pathetic and strangled sob.

Toshiro swallowed his next gasp, and with clenched eyes and a pained expression, he forced himself to kneel upright again.

Rangiku couldn’t help but sob as his glassy eyes opened to look at her. Despite the Bankai power surging through him, those eyes were still familiar. They were loving and promised her safety, even if it cost him his life.

“Get out of here, Matsumoto!” Toshiro pleaded with her, his voice hoarse and wavering, his own eyes wet. “I’ll cover your escape, just go!”

“N-no,” Rangiku shook her head, her body shaking as much as her voice. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Please, Ran,” Toshiro’s bloody and calloused hands cupped either side of her face, his voice begging. “Go!”

“I won’t,” the lieutenant told him firmly, stubbornness overtaking her fear for a moment, though the tears on her cheeks were doubtfully convincing. “I’m staying with you.”

Toshiro deflated then, believing her. Even now, he knew he couldn’t argue with her. He always told her she would still be arguing with him even on their death beds, and she supposed he was right about that.

Around them, the battle waged on. They could hear dying screams, challenging roars and the sounds of blades scraping against blades.

Around them, the battle waged on. They could smell blood and death, they could taste their tears.

Around them, the battle waged on. They knew this was the end.

Toshiro, still cupping her face, brought Rangiku’s head towards him. Gently, those chapped and bloodied lips pressed into her forehead and he held it for as long as he needed.

The lieutenant swallowed, her eyes fluttering closed.

This was her fault. She had found that little boy in the Rukongai. She had told him he had to become a Soul Reaper, she had signed him up for the Spiritual Arts Academy.

Everything that had happened to Toshiro since then had been on her.

The execution of his one and only friend, Kusaka. Their previous captain’s abandonment. The promotion he wasn’t ready for. The execution order that had been placed on his head at Kusaka’s return. The betrayal of the closest thing he had to a sister and Momo’s resulting death, the one he still blamed himself for. The zombification. The mature Bankai he hadn’t grown into yet.

The fact that Rangiku still, after a decade of training, hadn’t been able to release her Bankai, let alone master it.

_“I can’t do it, Captain!” Rangiku growled, frustratingly sending Haineko into the nearest tree trunk in the Squad Ten training grounds._

_“You can do it, Matsumoto,” Toshiro told her calmly. “You need to find your resolve.”_

_“My resolve?” Rangiku whipped around to face the captain, who stood with his arms crossed. He watched her, patient and somewhat amused at her struggles._

_“Your reason to fight,” Toshiro explained casually. “Why do you fight, Matsumoto? Why do you need to release this Bankai?”_

_“Because you ordered me to,” Rangiku muttered, and Toshiro only smirked back at her._

_“Dig a little deeper, Lieutenant.”_

She had tried to dig deeper, but as a relatively shallow person at the best of times, she hadn’t had to dig long to find she had no depth. Rangiku had thought Gin might have been her resolve, but there was no hope there. He was long gone now, there was nothing left of him to fight for.

That battle then, when Gin had died in her arms with her tears on his cheeks, seemed so long ago now, and yet they had come full circle. There was always another enemy, another fight, another war. There were always friends to lose and hope to be crushed – as was the afterlife of a soldier of death.

This time though… this time it was the end. A brutal end to a brutal cycle.

Toshiro was dying and it was her fault.

Still he loved her, and still he protected her.

Toshiro pulled his lips away from her forehead, and he tried to smile at her.

“I love you,” he murmured, his thumb stroking a cut on her cheekbone softly.

A tear fell from Rangiku’s eye. It rolled over her cheek, onto Toshiro’s wrist before it fell to ground, landing and splatting on Haineko’s blade. Ash stirred in her, waking up again.

Her captain said those words now, because he knew it might be the last thing he ever said to her.

“I love you too,” she choked.

She did – he was her family.

The slightest hint of a smirk played at Toshiro’s lips then as he nodded with some resolve. He groaned, forcing himself to stand despite the two stab wounds through his middle and multiple other injuries. It must have been the adrenalin that kept him going, but the lieutenant knew he couldn’t keep it up forever. Shakily, the captain stood, and turned towards the new batch of pawn soldiers the enemy was drowning them with. They ran at them, blades raised and screaming their war cries.

Rangiku stood too, beside him as always. He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

If they were going to die, they were going to go together.

They readjusted their Zanpakuto’s in their free hands, raising them and readying themselves for the next onslaught.

It came too soon, and immediately Rangiku was torn away from her captain and engulfed in another bout of sword slashing and swinging, trying to take down any and every enemy she could while trying not to be taken out herself. Beside her, Toshiro battled on, as more and more pawns went to him, seeking out and feeding on his power.

Rangiku caught a glimpse of her captain’s face just before he was lost in the swamp of blade wielding enemies who were jumping on him.

He had that matured jawline, that just visible stubble, those eyes that had seen too much, but Rangiku only saw the child she met in Junrinan.

Scared then, scared now, but always determined. He fought for her.

Rangiku had promised to look after him, she had promised that they were going to be a family.

Ash stirred within her again, and Rangiku felt her Spiritual Pressure spike. She had promised to have his back.

_“What’s your resolve then, Captain?” Rangiku asked, attitude in her words as she pulled the ungrateful Haineko blade from the tree trunk. “What do you fight for?”_

_Toshiro had ordered her to try again, but she knew it was futile. Haineko was all but snoring in her mind, too lazy to participate in Bankai training that afternoon._

_“You,” Toshiro told her, shrugging as if it was the simplest answer in the world._

_“Me?” Rangiku questioned, surprise in her voice as her eyebrows shot up._

_“You,” Toshiro confirmed with a nod, eyes turning slightly thoughtful. “It’s always been you.”_

Toshiro fought for her.

He hadn’t truly mastered his Bankai until Captain Shiba had disappeared. Before then, it had been the three of them, and Toshiro had only been a third seat, a young one at that. Though he was a protective child by nature, Isshin had always looked after the both of them – he had promised to keep them both safe. They had been a family, but in the wake of Isshin’s disappearance, Toshiro was pushed into the captaincy role he wasn’t ready for and suddenly had to be the protector.

So that’s what he had become – for her. He used that resolve to master his Bankai, to protect her.

Now Rangiku had to protect him.

Ash stirred wildly in her now, and just like that, Rangiku found her own resolve.

“Bankai!” Rangiku screamed, thrusting her sword up towards the black sky. “Kaya Haineko!”

Around her body, charcoal ash gathered and spun rapidly in a tight tornado, building up strength. As with her Shikai, each particle of scattered ash was a blade, and they glimmered under the low light – disturbingly beautiful and incredibly sharp. The wind created was ferocious, but the lieutenant planted her feet in Toshiro’s ice and stood her ground.

The ash was suffocatingly thick but Rangiku inhaled it easier than oxygen. She felt her power surge sharply, almost too powerful to control but she held on desperately, both hands gripping Haineko’s maroon hilt. Her skin turned hot and glowed with a million embers – they decorated her skin like orange diamonds. Her shoulder length hair, once just ginger, was now flames, dancing wildly in the wind, the only light inside this ash tunnel around her. Her eyes she couldn’t see, but she knew they weren’t that steely blue anymore.

She screamed as her enemy did, but for her it was triumphant. She had never felt such raw power before – swirling inside her body, beating madly in her heart.

Kaya Haineko. The ash cat that was as toxic as she was sharp – and entirely deadly.

The tornado tightened around Rangiku briefly before bursting out suddenly, sending a powerful shockwave across the battlefield. The bodies of their enemies were thrown back by the force of it, landing metres away and covered in endless cuts.

Her enemies writhed on the ground, screaming and screeching enough to make Rangiku’s ears bleed. Their skin was bubbling, blistering, burned and poisoned. The toxic ash absorbed into their bodies, killing them from the inside and the outside, ruthless and unyielding in its goal to destroy life. Their bodies turned to charcoal, and soon after they themselves turned to ash, crumbling to the ground. Defeated. _Dead._

Ash had turned them to ashes, and Rangiku knew she had the power now to use their ash remains as her own weapon.

It was rather poetic.

The ash cleared, and for a moment the battlefield was silent. Rangiku’s form didn’t change, her power didn’t recede, and all the pawns in the most recent wave were dead.

Still, very little had changed. Rangiku was where she started.

Across the battlefield, all too still bodies littered the ground.

Black lumps in the dirt, their skin covered with blood, their swords dropped or broken by their feet.

Rangiku held Haineko in trembling hands, her eyes stinging with tears.

She had released her Bankai, but this was still the end. Full circle.

The only difference was the ash piles woven between the bodies of broken Soul Reapers, but it changed very little on the grand scale of this battle.

“Kaya Haineko,” Toshiro’s voice caught her attention, and the lieutenant’s eyes snapped to the man lying on the dark red ice not too far away. He winced in pain, but he was still grinning. “Poisonous ash cat. Sounds about right.”

His smile was crooked and tried, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His body was entirely torn up now, and the lieutenant knew he could no longer stand up. Still, he looked happy to see her, and to have seen her this way. His expression was proud, even on the brink of death.

“Suits me, doesn’t it?” Rangiku smiled sadly at him, a humourless chuckle in her throat. Her arm fell down, Haineko’s tip dragging through the dirt and broken ice by her side as she ambled slowly towards her captain.

Toshiro was nodding as she knelt beside him. She spotted the tear dropping out the corner of his eye and down to his ear. Even though Rangiku had released her Bankai, even though she had done it to protect him, he was still dying. He could feel it and she could see it.

Slowly, Rangiku laid down, over his body just as Rukia had done to Renji.

Steam hissed and sizzled between them and around their bodies as ice met fire, but their arms still wrapped around each other and they refused to let go.

Rangiku placed her ear over his heart, feeling the erratic and weakening beat, and below her, the body of her captain morphed back to the scrawnier teenage version she knew so well, his mature Bankai receding. She felt her own skin return to normal, no longer covered in embers, her hair no longer flaming.

On the ground, covered in dirt, sweat and tears, Rangiku and Toshiro reverted back to their standard, almost ordinary forms. They had no energy left, no fight inside them. They only had fear and each other.

They didn’t know who was still alive on their side. They didn’t know if the healers were coming. They didn’t know if it was too late, even if the healers did come. They didn’t know if the enemy had another wave of pawns to send, or if someone on their side had finally ended the bosses. Rangiku hadn’t, she had just taken out the current wave of minion soldiers, and she knew already she couldn’t muster another release of Kaya Haineko. She just held onto her captain, and told him to hang on with her. She made him promise to keep breathing, to stay awake.

“Please,” Rangiku begged him. “Stay with me.”

“I will,” Toshiro murmured shakily between laboured breaths. “Forever.”

Rangiku held him tighter.

This was the end.

**Author's Note:**

> *Sobs*  
> I have left their fates deliberately open for reader interpretation (can’t handle dem sads)
> 
> KAYA HAINEKO – I chose the name ‘Kaya’ after Kaya Matsutani, the wonderful Japanese voice of Rangiku in the anime. A bit of research told me that the Japanese name meaning for Kaya is ‘a yew’ and a yew is a poisonous tree. Poisonous ash, anyone? Rangiku reckons that’s a go.
> 
> Join our super friendly, super active Bleach discord server! We gush Bleach and occasionally write, read and/or art things! Link: https://discord.gg/Zh8N2Ra


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